ODE releases long-awaited volunteers evaluation

After a very lengthy delay, the Office of Development Effectiveness (ODE) for the Australian aid program has today released its evaluation of the Australian Volunteers for International Development (AVID) program.

You can read the evaluation in full here.

There is plenty more to say about the evaluation (and we know this is a topic our readers love to talk about). So we will follow up with some analysis soon.

Overall the evaluation is very positive. It makes seven recommendations for change in areas such as consolidation of the program, involvement of DFAT posts, support networks, capacity building, promotion of the program and performance monitoring.

Some of the headlines from the evaluation and government response include the news that:

• The Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development (AYAD) identity will be retired to cement a single AVID brand. Youth participation will still be encouraged (particularly by 18-24 year olds) as part of a push to diversify the volunteering cohort.
• DFAT will look at consolidating the footprint of the program, potentially reducing the number of implementing partners in some countries or the number of host countries.
• DFAT posts will be more involved in setting the numbers of volunteers and will be encouraged to become more involved in identifying host organisations.
• DFAT will seek to formalise partnerships between host organisations and core partners through capacity development plans, in alignment with country program priorities.
• DFAT will redesign the performance monitoring for the program. The monitoring and evaluation of the program is the area most criticised by the evaluation.